Two Troubled Hearts
by Iceestar
Summary: Her name is Madeline, his name is Gilbert. Both of them have issues with their parents and both of them just want someone who will like them for who they are. When a chance meeting occurs they hit it off almost as if something brought them together.


Her name was Madeline Williams.

She wasn't a particularly interesting person, at least to most. Life didn't hold much excitement for her and in a way she was happy with the way things were. People failed to notice her standing around, but that was okay, they had more important things to do than notice her. Most of the time in crowded hallways she would get bumped into once or twice, but whoever it was was always nice enough to apologize to her right after. Those who did notice her normally compared her to her older brother Alfred. There had even been a time that someone had thought she was Alfred, but the person was drunk so Madeline didn't hold it against them at all.

All-in-all, Madeline was happy with her life as long as she could read as long as she wanted. A bland life like that suited her. All that mattered was that she was happy. Well, that's all that had mattered.

Despite the fact that Alfred was her brother they had lived in separate houses up until three months ago. Their mother, Francine, and their father, Arthur, had split up after years of constant arguments. It was a mutual thing though so there hadn't been any harsh feelings on either half. But, a year earlier, Francine had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and it had taken her life three months earlier.

Since then, Madeline hadn't done a lot of smiling or laughing. Her face seemed to have a permanent frown plastered there or a painfully fake smile. It was a much sadder life without her only friend, but Madeline had to keep going so she could become a chef like Francine had wanted, but had given up for Madeline. It was Madeline's dream to carry out Francine's dream. So the way Madeline saw it she had been living for two people ever since Francine died.

And that was fine with her.

His name was Gilbert.

He was the life of the party, to almost everyone that knew him. A lot of people knew him for getting in the middle of a place as long as it was a party and he could back a big deal out of everything. A constant grin was known to be plastered to his face that never reached his eyes. Most people thought he had everything he wanted in life and that he was some great superstar of a person. Everyone had expectations for him and one way or another he did his very best to live down those expectations. He felt trapped by everyone around him.

All-in-all, Gilbert was miserable. People told him to do this and do that when all he wanted was to be able to do what he wanted. So he went out of his way to make sure what people expected out of him didn't happen, but it wasn't always like that.

Despite the fact that he had a constant grin and never seemed to care to remember what happened the day before, he was haunted by his past. Gilbert came from a rich family. His family's history was rich and they had been building up a fortune for years. The only down fall to the upper life was that everything was decided for you, especially who you were supposed to love. Back long before Gilbert had been born his father's brother, Fritz, had fallen in love with a mysterious woman. It was later revealed that the woman was to be Gilbert's father, Alaric's, wife-to-be. Of course, Fritz being the younger sibling wasn't going to inherit their family company so he had no right to steal Alaric's wife and the woman had no right to run away with Fritz despite loving him rather than Alaric. Later on when Gilbert was born he was the reminder of this fact. His mother always smiled, but was never happy because her true love was Fritz and Gilbert could see it. Therefore, Gilbert always felt like Fritz was more so his father and one day, being a foolish young child, Gilbert called Fritz 'Dad'. Alaric was outraged by this and kicked his brother out of the house telling him to never come back. Gilbert and his mother never saw Fritz again. It was after that that Gilbert's mother slowly began to wither away, haven given up on life. Gilbert lost both of the people he had connected himself too and blamed himself for it.

Since then, Gilbert swore to not get attached. If he hadn't been so attached to Fritz he wouldn't have thought of him as a father. If his mother hadn't been so attached she would have lived and Alaric wouldn't have had such a reason to hate Gilbert. At least, in Gilbert's eyes Alaric hated him. Gilbert also swore to not let anyone control his future. And so, he plastered a fake grin on and fought his father every step of the way about his future.

And that was fine with him.

* * *

"Madeline, why did you make such a mess in the sitting room?" Arthur called out angrily.

Looking up from her book, Madeline shot Arthur a confused look. She was sitting on an oddly colored couch reading, at least she had been until Arthur yelled at her. "I didn't make that mess, it was Alfred, but if you'd like I can clean it up," Madeline said calmly, hoping to get Arthur to leave her alone so she could read.

Arthur tsked and said, "Trying to push the blame on someone else, just like that bloody frog. You'd better clean it up."

Sharply, Madeline glared at Arthur and a surprising show of disobedience. "I'm not trying to push the blame on anyone. It was Alfred who made the mess not me, but despite that I'm offering to clean it up. And just because you deal with loss by insulting the dead I'd prefer if you didn't insult my mother around me," Madeline snapped.

When Arthur rolled his eyes at her, she thought about shoving her book up his ass. Arthur placed his hands on his hips and sternly said, "I can talk about Francine in any way I like, I am an adult and I am paying for this house and in my house I can do whatever I please. And now you're lying, Alfred's out at practice, he hasn't been here since the morning and this morning the room was clean."

Giving Arthur a deadpan look, Madeline said, "Alfred skipped practice. He's up in his room right now."

"Oh yes cover a lie with another lie. You're just digging yourself a deeper hole young lady!"

Madeline groaned this time. When Arthur got like this there was no stopping him. "I'm going to go and read outside," Madeline said as she stood with her book in hand.

As she walked past Arthur he reached out and grabbed her wrist. "Where do you think you're going young lady? Clean up this mess."

Yanking her wrist out of Arthur's hold, Madeline looked at him coldly and said, "I'm going outside and there's nothing you can say or do to stop me. What are you going to do ground me? The only things I do are going to school, reading, and visiting my mother's grave. Let me know once you've gotten your panties untwisted and can learn to not take out your sadness on others."

With that, Madeline stormed out of the house, slamming the door shut. She would sneak back in later that night, but she knew that she wasn't going back there until sometime after midnight at the very least. Thinking about where she should go for a moment, Madeline decided to head towards the woods. It was a peaceful place and she knew that she would be able to read in silence there.

Doing her very best to not think about Arthur, because she knew if she thought about that she'd start crying, Madeline headed for the woods, aiming to go to the place she always went to read. Something caused her to stop though when she saw a little bug flitting across her vision.

It had a tiny upper body and a very long lower body. Little tiny legs lined the middle part of it, but the most dazzling thing about the bug was the wings. As it fluttered about the wings shifted and shimmered, shining every color of the rainbow.

Amazed by the dragonfly, Madeline followed it when it started to fly off. It flew slowly almost as if it wanted her to follow it.

Walking after the dragonfly, Madeline spotted the woods coming into view and wondered if it was leading her to a specific spot in there. For a moment she thought about not going on the off chance she ended up lost, but remembering what Arthur had said made her not care if she got lost. Blinking tears out of her eyes, Madeline pressed on into the woods with the dragonfly as her guide.

It didn't take long for them to get to their destination. There was a large tree stump in a clearing with wild flowers all over. The sun was at a perfect angle to cast a slight glow there and it made the area light up along with the cluster of dragonflies moving from one flower to the next. It was a beautiful sight.

Before she knew what was happening, tears began to slip from Madeline's eyes as she moved forward and sat down on the tree stump. It was beautiful and it made her so sad. Sad because her life couldn't be as beautiful as that place. Sad because her mother hadn't lived to see it. Sad because it wasn't fair that Arthur got angry at her because she reminded him of Francine. It made her so sad she couldn't help but cry.

* * *

"How could you pour water all over that poor girl Gilbert?" Alaric shouted in dismay, outraged that his eldest would act so childishly.

Gilbert looked away from the window he had been glaring out of to look at his father. "How could you go out and decided that I'm supposed to marry her? We all know you're just going to end up giving the family business to Ludwig. Why even pretend like you're going to give it to me? You know I'm not going to get an arranged marriage I mean what is this the 18th century? No, it's the 21st and I can marry whoever I want and I can chose to not get sucked into this idiotic cycle you and your ancestors insisted on following," Gilbert snapped angrily, the words hot on his tongue.

Glaring down at his eldest son, Alaric said, "You will do as you are told. You are the oldest therefore you will take up the family business and you will marry a proper young woman such as Elizabeta."

Laughing sarcastically, Gilbert said, "Ha. Ha. Ha. Good luck getting her on board with that after I poured water all over her. Besides she doesn't like me anyway. She likes a kid named Roderick and unlike you I'm not going to get in between lovers. So I guess you'll just have to find someone to marry Ludwig off to or your precious family business won't get any legitimate heirs because I swear to you I won't marry _anyone_ you want me to."

Fingers to the bridge of his nose, Alaric let out a loud sigh in frustration. Everything had to be a battle with Gilbert. "Why do you have to be so difficult? Why can't you just do as you're expected to?" Alaric asked, hoping Gilbert could shed some light on the situation.

"Because who you expect me to be isn't me and what you expect me to do isn't what I want. But I don't expect you to understand that _father._" Gilbert said sneering at the last word.

"You'll never understand and I'll never be the son you want me to," Gilbert growled spinning on his heel and leaving the window to storm out the door.

The beginnings of a migraine started for Alaric as he muttered, "What am I going to do with that boy?"

Slamming the door behind him, Gilbert stalked away from the house muttering angrily to himself. Heading towards the woods to cool off a bit, Gilbert saw a bug in the corner of his eye. Swatting at the bug, Gilbert cursed as his hand narrowly missed it. Turning to face the bug head on, Gilbert was about to swat it again, but something made him hesitate. It was a dragonfly. That area didn't get dragonflies very often yet there was one right in front of Gilbert. What was even odder was the fact that it was so close. Gilbert thought dragonflies were scared of people.

The dragonfly flew closer to him for a bit before flying towards the woods. It stopped and beat its wings to stay in one place, waiting for Gilbert.

Confused by its sudden appearance, Gilbert decided to follow it. Anger forgotten, Gilbert quickly followed after the small bug. Stomping through the woods, Gilbert looked around wondering why he hadn't seen this part before. He didn't recognize anything. Turning his attention back to the dragonfly in fear of losing it, Gilbert picked up his pace, eager to see where the bug was leading him.

When Gilbert saw what were the beginnings of a clearing, he was excited to have found a new place to go when his father's being too harsh on him. He definitely wasn't expecting to find a girl sitting on a stump crying.

Now ignoring all the dragonflies around the area, Gilbert moved forward quickly. Normally he would just ignore a crying girl to keep up appearances around his jerky friends at school, but there wasn't anyone else there and it felt different. Placing a hand gently on Madeline's shoulder, Gilbert knelt down so he would be eye level with her.

"Girls as pretty as you shouldn't be sad enough to cry like this," Gilbert said in a soft voice. Inside his mind he told himself he was only saying things like that to cheer the girl up, but a nagging side of himself told him to shut up because the girl was talking.

Trying to wipe her eyes quickly, Madeline looked at Gilbert for a moment before saying, "I don't even know you."

Shrugging a bit, Gilbert decided to stop being creep and move away from her. Standing up quickly, Gilbert held out a hand for her to shake. "My name's Gilbert. There, now you know me. Though it'd probably work better if I knew you too," Gilbert said flashing her a grin.

Madeline was confused by Gilbert, but at least he was a distraction from her troubles with Arthur. Standing as well, Madeline took Gilbert's hand and shook it firmly. "My name's Madeline," she said softly. Looking at Gilbert grinning for a bit, Madeline quietly said, "Why do you smile like that?"

Stunned for a second, the grin slipped a bit. "What do you mean?"

"You grin like you're hiding something and it doesn't reach your eyes at all."

Gilbert stood there gapping at Madeline before laughing wildly. "We've only just met and you're the first person to say something like that to me. Eh, if I lie to myself long enough and tell myself that I'm happy maybe it'll come true, you know?" Gilbert said, plopping down on the stump.

Smiling a tiny bit, Madeline nodded and said, "Actually I understand a lot more than you probably think I do."

For some reason Gilbert felt like Madeline was telling the truth and knew exactly how he felt. "Hmph. Well then, if you don't mind me asking, why were you crying?"

Sitting down next to Gilbert, Madeline looked down at her hands for a moment before saying, "I got into a fight with my dad. I don't even really remember what it was about, but it made me think of my mom and so I started crying."

"Dead mother then?" Gilbert asked without thinking.

Madeline nodded slowly. "Yeah. She was really my only friend and my dad gets angry at me because I remind him of her so I kind of ran out and then followed a dragonfly here. Oh gosh that probably sounds insane, following a dragonfly all the way here."

Smiling for real this time, Gilbert shook his head and said, "Not at all. I just had a fight with my dad and ran out on him and then followed a dragonfly here too."

Eyebrow's furrowing, Madeline looked at Gilbert suspiciously. "You're not lying to me are you?"

Gilbert chuckled and said, "What do I have to gain from lying to you?"

Considering it, Madeline accepted the idea and then proceeded to question Gilbert about his own life.

They stayed like that for hours just talking to each other and getting to know one another. It was different and it was nice to just be with another person who understood them. Eventually though the conversation fell silent.

Staring off into space, Gilbert tried to think of another topic to bring up so there wouldn't be complete silence anymore. Luckily for him though, Madeline broke the silence quickly.

Standing up, Madeline brushed off her clothes and said, "It's about to get dark. I need to go home or my dad will worry."

"O- oh…" Gilbert really didn't want her to leave. They had had so much fun just sitting around and talking it would be a shame to lose his new friend so quickly.

Madeline was having similar thoughts and said, "How about we meet up here tomorrow about the same time?"

Grinning like an idiot, Gilbert quickly said, "Swear?"

Chuckling, Madeline replied, "I swear."

Nodding in satisfaction, Gilbert hugged Madeline gently before bidding her farewell. Once she had disappeared into the woods, Gilbert turned and walked back to his own home, happier than he had been in a very long time.

Once both of the teenagers were gone and out of earshot, a blonde man stepped out of the shadows. He was wearing a white toga and holding onto a wand while his wings shifted a bit. "You were right Uni, the dragonflies worked splendidly! I have a feeling those two will stay together for a very long time. Perhaps I'll use dragonflies more often now. Either way I'm happy that they've found each other."

With that, the man vanished from the place as if he had never been there in the first place.

* * *

Author's Notes: Alright this is a very, very over due one-shot for a certain Neeky-chan whom I'm hoping isn't angry at me for taking so long to write this. Um basically the idea was to write a PruFem!Can thing that involved dragonflies in some way. I hope whoever reads this likes it and I hope you'll consider looking at some of my other fics as well.

Reviews are really awesome too, especially criticism.


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